Electra here tried to post to talk back but was shut down because of a weird glitch, so she sent her GTO obsessed comments to me. I've only met her once and I don't believe she had anything to do with the film, so she is far less biased than the blithering Quint. So on to Electra...
I went to the Austin premier of the Faculty. Honestly, the main draw of going to see this flick was winning the GTO (and the fact that I live Rodreguez flicks). I have wanted a GTO sine I was a kid. My dad had a GTO when I was born and my mom made him sell it and get a Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, THE HORROR. Richard Linklater has the very prettiest black GTO I have ever seen, and get a little shot of adrenline just thinking about it. I don't think he would sell it to me though. I love those cars. Anyway, I did not win the GTO.... someone less worthy and less obsessed won, for her kid who is turning 16 nonetheless. I am not bitter...really. I am still excited because the movie ROCKED! I screamed out loud I got all jumpy, I cheered. I felt all happy when everyone screamed for Harry. It was a rock n roll hell ride. Just like the one I woulda taken ya on in that cherry of a GTO. I am taking my brother (who taught me my appreciation for hot rods) and my treckker sci fi queen of a sister in law to see the Faculty on Christmas Day. I am pshcyed to see it again! I left the theatre all giddy and excited....and I WANTED TO DO DRUGS... just kidding. Enjoy it everyone, its a super fun flick.
This is Quint's completely biased review of THE FACULTY. He was on set more than me stalking Laura Harris, with whom he pants and drools about all the time. Run Laura Run! It's a sad sad saaaaad state of affairs, but hey... that's QUINT. On one side though... he's almost completely cut out of the film and has no credit, so he should be bitter and angry and frustrated... let's see what the psycho has to say....
I'm sure all you guys are about to be hit by a plethora of Faculty reviews from the AICN regulars since they were all at the premiere, but well, here's mine. You've read the interviews I've gotten with Elijah Wood and Laura Harris, so I figured somebody out there somewhere would like to read my BIAS review.
About three hours before the pre-party started for the Faculty premiere, the radio on the Orca started beckoning me. "Amity life-station to Orca. Come in Orca." I answered cautiously. It was the love of my life, my fiance, Ms. Laura Harris. She had called to ask if I was going to the premiere and apologize for not being able to show up. Ya' see, she had promised me that I could be her date to the premiere. She sounded very sorry. She's too cute to get mad at, so I told her it was OK and she said she'd keep her fingers crossed for me when Robert was drawing the ticket for the GTO giveaway. I guess she forgot to cross her toes, too. I didn't get it. Oh well.
Anyway, I am so biased. I fully admit it. This is my movie. I was there on set, I appear on the screen for like a total of 4 seconds in like 5 different scenes. I got to know the cast, especially Laura..... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... very well. I even interviewed the main stars, Laura and Eli for you guys. I read two different drafts of the script, I saw some of the special effects work done. By all means, this movie shouldn't have been a surprise for me. I had already glorified it in my mind. It shouldn't have met my extremely high expectations.
But it did. This is such a cool flick. To be completely honest, I should be hammering the movie. Why you may ask? Well, Robert seemed to feel it was in the film's best interest to completely cut my "big" scenes out of the movie. I can still be found in the background hallway shots, but all the scenes in which I was prominently featured are on the cobwebby, dark, musty corner of the cutting room floor.
I was a little taken aback that I didn't get to see more of myself, but that was the only disappointment for me. Jesus, how egotistical is that? What I'm trying to tell you is that the only thing that I felt was wrong with the movie was completely personal. Robert missed perfection by that much. Just a little bit more of me would have made The Faculty perfect.
All right, enough of me acting like Kevin Costner. Well, wow. Faculty is damn cool. It doesn't pretend to be more than it is: a good time. That's something that Independence Day suffered from. It couldn't decide if it was an all out comedy or a serious, dramatic sci-fi film. In essence, ID4 was desperately trying to be more than it was. Not so with Faculty.
The acting is above par for a sci-fi, teen-filled flick. Frankly, if any of the cast members had tried to give Oscar-quality performances, it would have been so out of place. I was really impressed with how well the acting fit the film. Speaking from the point of view of somebody who spent a little time behind the scenes and a lot of time with the actors, I can say with some sureness that the fun and good times had by all the cast and crew dribbled over onto the movie. You know, like all of Robert's movies. People have so much damn fun making them that the audience can't help but have fun watching them. It's kinda hard for me to say who stole the film. I'd have to say Laura, but that's just because I love her... Clea as Stokely is awesome, so is Eli as Casey and Shawn as Stan. And God how beautiful is Jordana. Not as cute as Laura in my opinion, but still a hottie. Not a bad actress either. Josh is just the shit in the film. That's it. I don't think I could come up with a better phrase. He rocks. Just oozes coolness.
With an ensemble, sci-fi film that has most of the special effects in the second half of the movie, the chemistry between the characters and the originality of the dialogue is crucial to keep the audience going. Again, Faculty gets an A.
This is, in my humbled (yes, and biased) opinion, Kevin Williamson's best script since Scream. (HARRY NOTE: Quint, yes that's true, but it ain't saying much, since that rat bastard killed RANDY!!!!) Yes, the script is full of pop-culture references. You can recognize Williamson's influence on the film. It's not a bad thing because it works. I've read in a lot of talkbacks about how some people are not liking the references or whatnot. But, c'mon. Who was your favorite character in the Scream movies? The readers said, "Randy." And who made 90% of the pop-culter references in the films? Why, that would be Randy again. Is it a coincidence that the most loved character in Scream (without breasts) made all the cool references? I doubt it.
All in all, Faculty is one of the most fun movies that has come out this year. If you liked From Dusk Till Dawn, you'll shit yourself over this one. All right, maybe not that extreme of a reaction, but you'll definitely enjoy it. Don't take my word for it, Constant Readers, go check it out and make up your own minds. Mine's biased, remember?
-Quint
